Mission (not) Accomplished

1082014

Friday, August 1, 2014

Another nice late morning for us. Rich is doing great getting through his jet lag. We are determined today to complete our mission that we started yesterday. Our wandering leads us to have a coffee (and a beer – hey it is after noon) at a plaza close to Antonio’s Market where we are planning on scoring the “goods.”

Coffee and beer

All the way to Antonio’s I am thinking that I hope the dude remembers us and what we wanted. I wasn’t sure I could explain that we had been there yesterday, ordered the wine, came back to pick it up, yada yada in Spanish. Rich zig zags us all around the streets and I start to whine a little about how far we are walking. His answer is always “It is just up the hill.”

Just up the hill…

When we arrive at the wine market it is closed (again). It is about 1:30 and they are supposedly open until 2. Even the side door is shut. Then, I see a doorbell and ring it (what the heck?). Soon our dude appears and he obviously recognizes us. His face falls. He explains in Spanish that he could not get the bottle that we wanted and he feels really bad about it. He makes several phone calls around town and finally locates one bottle but tells us it is “muy cara” (very expensive). It is more than double the usual price. Damn.

Time to have lunch and regroup. We contact Dario to see if he wants to join us for lunch. He suggests a place that is close to home and we agree to meet there. The restaurant is pretty easy to find (we are getting our navigational bearings pretty good) and Dario is waiting out front. La Muscleria looks like a fantastic choice. Their speciality is, guess what, Mussels! The pictorial menu shows mussels down just about any way you can imagine.

Dario chooses Belgian style and I go for the Diavolo (spicy). Rich is in the mood for fish and orders the cod.

The mussels arrive in individual pots and are fantastic. Mussels, crusty pan con tomate, a small salad and a bottle of white wine – what more do we need?

I think we solved several of the world’s problems over lunch and we even started schemeing on a great invention. Can’t give away any secrets – look for us on Shark Tank…

Home for a siesta (did I tell you I could get used to this?) and chillin’ before Janel comes home from work. Dario and Janel are planning dinner for us tonight and they have decided to cook in our apartment because we have A/C. Good choice. They arrive around 9:30pm for our “Meals on Wheels.”

Special bottle of Eiswein (ice wine)

Janel’s new raclette is unveiled. A raclette is a little pan that where you melt special “raclette” cheese and then scrape it off onto various items – bread, asparagus, potatoes, etc. Hers is heated with tea lights and is the cutest thing ever. This is its debut and we have fun melting and eating the special cheese that Dario purchased.